Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cresent Societies - 1 July 2003
Suarez del Toro was addressing the high level segment of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in Geneva. He said its theme - "Promoting an integrated approach to rural development in developing countries for poverty eradication and sustainable development" - could only be addressed productively if governments worked with and consulted the affected people themselves.
"Although the draft Ministerial Declaration mentions the importance of rural development policies integrating top-down and bottom-up approaches, and involving civil society, little has been done so far to give substance to this objective," Suarez del Toro said. "Without this consultation, and the capacity-building which must accompany it, there is little prospect of meaningful work on the root causes of the poverty and inequality."
He noted that the draft Ministerial Declaration recognized the critical link between HIV/AIDS and rural development, and hence poverty eradication and food security strategies. "We consider that much more needs to be done, with new thinking and new language, to address the links between health, food and poverty by the UN system and other international humanitarian actors," he added.
"We believe that this fresh thinking is most likely to come to governments from those directly affected by the pandemic û People Living With HIV/AIDS and communities affected by it," the Federation president explained.
He told the council that the International FederationÆs community-based programmes were an important example of where crosscutting issues - disaster preparedness and health activities - could be identified and integrated.
Suarez del Toro noted that these issues would be at the heart of DecemberÆs International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which will also address the vital issue of community involvement and local capacity-building.
"This is the front line of the struggle against the pandemic, and indeed of the struggle against poverty and all affronts to human dignity. It is here that the most effective partnerships are formed, most frequently with Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies at the national or local level," he said.
"In each such partnership and activity the relationship of HIV/AIDS to poverty and food insecurity is central, which is another reason why the International Federation would have preferred a more prominent place for the question in this Ministerial Declaration."
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